Prysmian awarded surcharge for SüdOstLink extension

The Prysmian Group, world leader in the energy and telecoms cable industry, continues to expand its leading role in the development of electricity transmission infrastructure in Europe. The German grid operator TenneT TSO GmbH confirmed its confidence in Prysmian by commissioning the second 2 GW system as an extension of SuedOstLink worth approximately €700 million for the development of 546 km of 525 kV HVDC underground cable systems. This confirms Prysmian's role in the German HVDC projects SuedOstLink, SuedLink and A-Nord, which Prysmian has already secured at a cost of over €1.5bn and which are currently under construction.

Prysmian will supply and install a land system that will transport renewable energy from wind farms in northern and eastern Germany to high-consumption cities and industrial areas in southern Germany and is crucial for the energy transition in Germany. SuedOstLink consists of two projects - V5 and V5a. Both projects, each with a capacity of 2 GW, will together supply southern Germany/Bavaria with 4 GW of electricity.

"Following the award of the majority of the German projects already secured, this expansion represents a further development of our long-standing trust and relationship with TenneT and will set a new benchmark for both the product itself and EPC expertise in underground cabling," said Hakan Ozmen, EVP Projects BU, Prysmian Group.

The first 20 km of the approximately 550 km of cable for the approximately 270 km long SuedOstLink (V5) route were completed and delivered at the beginning of 2022.

The HVDC P-laser cable used for the project was developed by the Prysmian Group and is produced in Gron, France, where a new second production line is currently being invested in. The network components are manufactured in Livorno, Italy, while the fibre optic cable is produced in Slatina, Romania. The P-Laser cable solution offers a power transmission capacity of over 2 GW in a single system and is the first 100% recyclable, environmentally friendly high-performance insulation technology based on HPTE (High Performance Thermoplastic Elastomer), which reduces CO2 emissions during production by 30%.

Delivery of the cables for V5a is planned from 2025. The V5a project will go into operation in 2030. This V5a expansion runs parallel to the SuedOstLink corridor V5.

In Germany, Prysmian is already the leading cable supplier for energy supply companies with around 1,900 employees, 6 production facilities in Nordenham, Schwerin, Berlin, Neustadt bei Coburg, Nuremberg and Wuppertal as well as 4 research and development centres. In addition, Prysmian has opened three new regional offices in Bayreuth, Würzburg and Wuppertal to support the German HVDC project and has established a multicultural project development and management team with over 200 employees.